Grace is Amazing

On January 1, 2012, approximately 40,000 new laws took affect in the United States. Will these 40,000 new laws finally bring all of the citizens under control and into compliance? It is more likely there will be 40,000 more new laws next year than this year’s new laws will fix anything.

A person could keep perfectly every single law and still not be perfect. A law can make us behave differently, but it cannot make us a different person.

The reality is that no single law or set of laws can ‘fix’ anyone. The law will always be an external constraint on an internal problem. The problem is not that we don’t have enough laws. The problem is that in the final analysis, we are all self centered.

Laws can’t change that, but God can. The Bible tells us that God is in the business of transforming hearts and minds – the inside stuff. God does it not by law, but by grace.

When the Apostle Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit (Love, joy, peace, etc. Galatians 5:22-23), he concludes by saying, “Against such things there is no law.” He would have also been correct in saying, “For such there is no law.” New Year’s resolutions to do things differently are not bad, simply inadequate. We can’t make ourselves perfect through better behavior. It takes transformed hearts.

My New Year’s prayer is not for one more law or resolution but a measure of grace so great that another law becomes unnecessary. That would be amazing grace…